Why Do Flight Attendants Sit on Their Hands? The Strange Safety Protocol, Explained

Every airline passenger knows flight attendants give critical safety guidance during their pre-takeoff briefings about seatbelts and emergency exits. But many observant passengers often watch cabin crew throughout the flight for unspoken safety cues, too. If you’re one of these watchful fliers, you might have noticed a certain way that cabin crew sit during takeoff and landing: on their hands. If you're a nervous—or simply curious—flier, you might be wondering why flight attendants sit in this peculiar way; whether it indicates a potential emergency; or if passengers should follow suit. Fortunately, nervous fliers don’t need to worry when they see this, as it’s standard operating procedure for cabin crew that applies to every flight. “In aviation, we call this position the ‘brace position’ for flight attendants,” says Lia Ocampo, a former flight attendant and the author of the memoir Life, Love, and Lessons in the Sky. Brace positions are a safety protocol that flight attendants follow in case of accidents and sudden emergencies. Assuming a brace position means strategically positioning parts of the body such as the head and arms, by flexing, bending, and leaning